President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said Taiwan and China were at an “historic juncture” and that his engagement of Beijing through trade had put relations on their surest footing in more than half a century.
“This is a very meaningful job for Taiwan at an historic juncture,” Ma told AFP in an interview on Thursday.
“If we can contribute to peace and prosperity across the Taiwan Straits [sic], the accomplishments would be historic,” said Ma, describing the present as the “most peaceful era in history.”
PHOTO: SAM YEH, AFP
Shrugging off poor opinion polls and criticism that his policy amounted to appeasement that would damage Taiwan’s economy and security, Ma said Taiwan’s future prosperity was inextricably linked with progress in China.
However, Ma said that the former enemies had a long way to go adding that his government would not consider formal peace talks until China removed or dismantled more than 1,000 missiles targeting Taiwan.
Despite often tense relations, the past 20 years have seen massive Taiwanese investment in China, with the country overtaking the US as Taiwan’s biggest export market.
Since taking office in May 2008, Ma’s administration has since signed 12 economic agreements with China paving the way for, among other things, increased flights and tourist arrivals, and calming one of Asia’s most volatile security situations.
“It’s very important that the tension has been greatly reduced. In this part of the world, as you can see, there are two flashpoints — the Korean Peninsula and the Taiwan Straits,” he said. “If we can take one out of the picture, I think everyone will be happy and this is exactly what we are doing now.”
Ma said Taiwan had risked being left behind in an era of rapidly expanding free-trade agreements across Asia.
“In the last 10 years FTAs, free-trade agreements, rose from three to 58, with the notable absence of Taiwan and North Korea,” he said.
To tie Taiwan into this regional network, Ma has been pushing for an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China that he said would unlock unused potential by offering lower tariffs for a select list of industries.
Ma’s admininistration hopes to sign it with China in June, he said, arguing that in a time of interlinking economies and ever fiercer competition, there was no alternative.
“Diplomatic isolation can be handled, and we handle it well, but with economic isolation we have to be very careful. If we lose the market share in a given country, it will be very difficult to get it back,” he said.
Critics, however, oppose an ECFA amid fears that it would jeopardize Taiwan’s sovereignty and make it too economically dependent on China.
Ma, who has seen his approval ratings fall below 30 percent in some polls mainly because of criticism of his China and economic policies and a perception he is not decisive enough, said an ECFA would strengthen Taiwan’s current status quo.
“It will make the status quo more favorable to Taiwan because it will increase Taiwanese products’ competitiveness in the world and will make Taiwan’s status in East Asia even stronger than before,” he said.
Ma said there were no plans to start political dialogue with China and he said the time was not right for him to consider a visit to Beijing.
He said Taiwan was watching “with concern” the human rights situation in China following deadly unrest in Tibet in 2008 and Xinjiang last year, the ongoing crackdown on dissent and the conflict with Internet giant Google.
TENSIONS: The Chinese aircraft and vessels were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a joint air and sea military exercise, the Ministry of National Defense said A relatively large number of Chinese military aircraft and vessels were detected in Taiwan’s vicinity yesterday morning, apparently en route to a Chinese military exercise in the western Pacific, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. In a statement, the ministry said 36 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, including J-16 fighters and nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or an extension of it, and were detected in the southern and southeastern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) from 5:20am to 9:30am yesterday. They were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
CASES SLOWING: Although weekly COVID-19 cases are rising, the growth rate has been falling, from 90 percent to 30 percent, 14 percent and 6 percent, the CDC said COVID-19 hospitalizations last week rose 6 percent to 987, while deaths soared 55 percent to 99, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, adding that the recent wave of infections would likely peak this week. People aged 65 or older accounted for 79 percent of the hospitalizations and 90 percent of the deaths, the majority of whom have or had underlying health conditions, CDC data showed. The youngest hospitalized case last week was a six-month-old, who was born preterm and was unvaccinated, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. The infant had a fever, coughing and a runny nose early this month, but